


Beautiful Stranger, Here You Are

by JohnnieTheNB



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Depressed Thomas, Depression, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I Love You, Light Angst, Love, M/M, Oneshot, Vignette, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23688742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnnieTheNB/pseuds/JohnnieTheNB
Summary: The first time Richard told Thomas he loved him.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis
Comments: 11
Kudos: 112





	Beautiful Stranger, Here You Are

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s a little cute thing I wrote on a whim because Thomas/Richard fics and writing love songs about my girlfriend are the only things that keep me sane at this point. Hope you enjoy <3

It had been a long time since Thomas had loved someone. He’d been beginning to give up, you know. He’d almost decided to try and cope with loneliness. Shut the world out, shut himself in, be a good little boy and stay quiet and be endlessly, meaninglessly grateful for what he had. And he’d have been telling himself he was one of the lucky ones. And he’d have fallen in love with every handsome stranger he bumped shoulders with.

But now, there was Richard.

Richard Ellis. A beautiful, wonderful, shining shard of heat and energy and happiness. Being around Richard was like sitting in the sunlight. Talking to him was like lying on the beach. Touching him was like touching warm, golden daylight.

Kissing him was like tasting a ray of sunshine. 

It was so, so warm, and Thomas had been so cold. He’d been beginning to forget what it was like to have feeling in his fingertips. And when he felt it again, it ached.

And it ached so good.

It was all he could ever think about.

Thomas supposed Richard was all that mattered to him anymore. He just wanted to be with Richard, and talk to Richard, and touch his hands, and touch his face, and kiss his lips and stay up with him all night playing piano or reading stories from books that had been long forgotten piled up and dusty on Thomas’ dresser.

Richard was everything Thomas had ever dreamed of.

And he was in love with him. 

He hadn’t told him, though. He’d known since they first met. He’d been sure for a few months. They’d been ‘corresponding’ for a year this Wednesday. Today concluded a two-day visit from Richard. Thomas wished it could have been longer.

Thomas was sitting in the butler’s pantry. It was nearly midnight, and the only source of light was the moon which casted a strange silver light over the room made everything look sleepy. Richard had left for the station ten minutes ago now, according to the clock on the opposite wall. Thomas’ head was still spinning.

It was so serenely quiet, he thought he may fall asleep right here behind his desk. He was tired, but for whatever reason he didn’t want to go back to his room yet. He’d rather just listen to the thrumming of his heart for a little while. He hummed a simple little song and ran his thumb over the silver pendent in his hands.

He let his eyes scan over the room when he heard a small click coming for somewhere outside. Nothing to worry about, probably. There were a lot of people in this house. There were also a few mice.

His eyes dropped down to the pendent for a moment. 

“Thomas.”

Richard?

Thomas blinked. Richard was standing ghostlike in the doorway. Thomas stood up, a smile already forming on his face despite his confusion. 

“Richard?” Asked Thomas as Richard walked closer to him, an unreadable expression on his face, eyes locked on Thomas’s mouth. 

“What are you-?”

And then he was kissing him, head tilted and eyes closed. Richard’s hands were placed on Thomas’s lower back so lightly, and he pulled Thomas in so gently, and he nodded his head so carefully.

Lord, help him.

Thomas was _swooning._ He’d never been kissed like this. Jesus, it was so warm. Thomas was hot and dizzy and his entire body was covered in goosebumps.

He placed his fists on Richard’s chest and kissed him back. He nodded his head in sync with Richard. Richard just pressed Thomas against himself and kissed him like there was nothing else he’d ever wanted to do.

Richard moved his hands up to Thomas’ face as he slowly pulled away. Thomas was all red and flustered and smiling like a lovesick schoolboy. His heart was beating in his throat. Richard was staring right through him. Thomas finally decided he’d say something.

“What are you doing back here? I thought you were-“

“I’m in love with you.”

Thomas’ heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe. He’d lost feeling in his face.

“Wh—What?”

“I love you.”

He hadn’t misheard him. He couldn’t think straight. His head was spinning. Richard loved him. _Richard Ellis loved him._

“You— love... me?”

Richard nodded. He was still holding onto Thomas’ face. He brushed his cheek with his thumb.

“I—I love you, too.”

Thomas was desperately looking back and forth between Richard’s eyes, searching for some kind of emotion. Thomas was going to cry. Shit... he hated crying. 

And then Richard was smiling at him like he was the most precious thing he’d ever seen. Finally.

“You do?” Richard asked, a bout of nervous laughter shaking his lungs.

Thomas couldn’t talk around the lump in his throat so he just nodded, his face scrunching up in the way it always did when he was about to cry. He hated how he looked when he was crying. He’d always been an ugly crier.

Richard kissed him anyway.

Despite it all, Richard loved him anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> your comments. give them to me.


End file.
